1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fuel dispensers, and more particularly, to fuel dispensers including a point-of-sale control module within the fuel dispenser.
2. Description of Related Art
The retail petroleum industry utilizes various brands of fuel dispensers for dispensing fuel to customers. Some form of remote dispenser controller is typically used for controlling the dispensers. The remote dispenser controller is often located in a manner where a site attendant can monitor and control particular dispensers from a building at the site. The controllers send data signals (i.e., commands) to the dispensers which can include price, payment data for the fuel dispensed, preset amounts of fuel to dispense, and pump authorization to dispense fuel. The dispensers likewise send data signals to the controller including pump number, pump status and dispensed fuel volume and sale value.
Point-of-sale (POS) systems are widely used in the industry to control fuel dispensers. Point-of-sale systems generally utilize an open architecture hardware platform with POS application software programming to integrate functions including cash register, dispenser control, credit card, inventory management, processing, and scanning.
The problem with the interaction between existing point-of-sale systems and fuel dispensing systems is the dependency of the fuel dispenser on the external point-of-sale equipment. Existing dispensers are dumb devices, fully dependent upon the external point-of-sale equipment to control financial transactions and pump functions. Once the point-of-sale link between the point-of-sale equipment and the fuel dispenser is removed, the fuel dispensers are incapable of operation. Thus, there is a need for improving the functionality of fuel dispensers to enable them to continue operation in the absence of a link with the point-of-sale equipment control.